A couple run in an empty Red Square, with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background, during a self-isolation regime due to coronavirus in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended the nation's partial economic shutdown through May 11, saying the coronavirus outbreak is yet to reach a peak.
Russia has become the 8th country after -- USA, Spain, Italy, France, UK, Germany and Turkey -- to cross 1 lakh coronavirus cases. As per the latest reports by news agency Sputnik, 7,099 cases have been reported in Russia over the last 24 hours taking the overall tally past 100,000.
Russia has had 1,073 deaths linked to coronavirus while 11,619 people have recovered.
Reports of infected medical workers are emerging almost daily as Russia copes with the virus. Last week alone, more than 200 doctors in Moscow and St. Petersburg were reported to have it, with some turning to social media to make their plight known.
It’s unclear how many Russian doctors and nurses overall have been infected. The Health Ministry did not respond to requests for comment but news reports from a dozen regions in the past two weeks suggest at least 450 medical workers have had COVID-19, with 11 doctors and five nurses dying.
The number is likely to be much higher because hospital officials often hide such infections, said Semyon Galperin, head of the Doctors Defense League.
“I know of cases of hospital administrations not reporting medics getting infected because it may lead to sealing off the facility for quarantine and halting its operations,” Galperin told The Associated Press.
